Charles Mackintosh was a Scottish born architect and artist who painted in a modernist style. Charles Mackintosh was born in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom in the year 1868. He was the fourth of eleven children. His father worked in the city police department. Mackintosh also worked as a sculptor.

He won a scholarship to study architecture after his high school age education was complete. He worked in this field from 1896 to 1906. Below we view a fantastic house that was designed by Charles Mackintosh but not completed until recently. The house is filled with examples of modernist art including the fireplace, many sets of tables and chairs, and light fixtures:

Mackintosh was inspired by Japanese art.

As a painter the artist worked mainly with the medium of watercolor. His favorite subjects were landscapes and floral works.

Mona Caron is a contemporary artist renown for her murals which feature a birds eye view of the location. In addition to the view from above the artist often paints how the current location used to look, how it looks now, and how it may look in the future.

Mona Caron was born in Ticino, Switzerland. This is an Italian speaking part of the country. Her father was a theater and opera set designer.

Here we see many images of Mona Caron’s signature botanical works:

Mona Caron was born in Switzerland and briefly attended the University of Swizerland located in Zurich before moving to San Francisco, California where she attended the San Francisco Academy of Art. Caron received a B.F.A. after studying illustration.

Barbara Hepworth was a British painter renown for her abstract style. Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth was born in Wakefield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England in the year 1903. The artist attended the Leeds School of Art and also the Royal College of Art.

Hepworth worked a majority of her career as a sculptor. A collegiate classmate named Henry Moore would be crucial in her development in the modernist movement. Moore has been profiled here already for his modernist sculpture.

Hepworth was married to a fellow sculptor named John Skeaping. After divorcing she then remarried artist Ben Nicholson. Though this marriage also ended in divorce, the couple did have triplets.

For much of her professional life she was based out of St. Ives, Cornwall, England.

She worked often with wood or bronze. Late in life she took up printmaking.

Ben Nicholson was a British artist renown for his abstract and cubist painting styles. His abstract works focus on bold color choices and basic geometric shapes. For his cubist works he is best known for his work with the still life and mugs and various drinking vessels.

Ben Nicholson was born in Denham, Buckingshire, England in the year 1894. His family was well known in the region as his mother and father were both painters and a brother went on to be a well known architect.

The artist attended the Slade School of Fine Art located in London, England.

In this clip we take a closer look at one of Nicholson’s still life paintings up for sale at Christie’s Auction House:

Nicholson had severe asthma. This condition would not allow him to serve his country in World War 1.

He was married to sculptor Barbara Hepworth for more than one decade. The artist was married three times.

Nicholson was also an avid printmaker.

Below a large selection of works by Ben Nicholson:

Ben Nicholson passed away in 1982.

Price range information: Works in pencil start around $20,000. Etchings start at $5,000. An original oil has sold for more than $1.6 million dollars at auction.

Eelus is fantastic street artist based out of the United Kingdom. Eelus works in many mediums and is best known for the art of paper cutting, working with stencils, printmaking, and collage. Eelus was born in Wigan, a part of Greater Manchester, England in the year 1979.

He moved to London and became successful after his work was recognized by street artist legend Banksy and another street artist named Eine.

In this clip we visit the studio of Eelus and watch him work on creating some stencils:

Although the artist is capable of working in many mediums I am most impressed by his paper collage. His work with the figure and face using collage is hardly matched in the art world as far as realism and capturing a likeness.

For inspiration the artist often works with subjects he enjoys which include science fiction, women, and pop culture movies such as Star Wars.

Margaret Keane is an American painter renown for her paintings which often featuring children with big eyes. Margaret Keane was born in Nashville, Tennessee in the year 1927.

She is also the feature of a wonderful movie that just opened yesterday titled “Big Eyes.” I happened to see the movie yesterday and enjoyed it. The movie didn’t detract too much from the many short documentaries I have read about Margaret Keane.

Keane was very independent and two times left failing marriages at a time when women were given very little opportunity. In the 1950s and 1960s when her work started selling, it was her husband who claimed he painted them. The couple was very successful as a team, but unlike Olga and Alex Baronov, it wasn’t a husband and wife painting team. The wife painted the pictures, but besides her and her husband everyone else thought it was her husband that painted the images.

This story reminded me of the artist Bev Doolittle. Again another situation in which husband and wife were both artists, but in this case the husband gave up his art dreams to help manage and promote his wife’s work. But she got the credit in this case.

In the end Margaret Keane takes her husband to court and movie reaches the climax at this point. She proves that it is she that is the painter. Walter Keane was ordered to pay 4 million dollars in restitution money. Walter Keane is one of the images in the gallery and he still insisted he was the painter until his death. He died penniless.

Margaret Keane is still living and paints often. She still paints her trademark, young women and girls with huge eyes.

Over her career the characters she paints have become happier.

Keane has a wonderful artistic touch. She is a great painter and has great skill at painting supporting subjects in her works such as cats and fences.

A short biography about Margaret Keane with many paintings by the artist: